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2020 Subaru Legacy, Outback earn IIHS safety picks

The redesigned 2020 Subaru Legacy sedan and Outback wagon both earned kudos from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, but the news was not equally good for both models. The Legacy sedan walked away with the highest award, Top Safety Pick+. The Outback was one rung down, a Top Safety Pick. Sadly for the Outback, the previous, 2019 model had nabbed the TSP+ score. Why the difference in the Legacy and Outback? In a word: headlights. The IIHS structures their awards around several elements: crash tests, crash-avoidance systems, and headlights. Both Subarus aced their crash tests, earning Good results for the entire battery of tests (small and moderate front overlap on both sides, roof crush, side-impact, and head-restraints). Their standard EyeSight accident-avoidance automated emergency braking systems also performed well, successfully avoiding crashes at 12 and 25 mph, netting Superior ratings. (The pedestrian-detection function similarly earned a Superior rating, although pedestrian detection doesn't count toward the IIHS total score.) Headlights have to earn a Good rating in order for a car to qualify for TSP+; headlights deemed merely Acceptable limit a car to a maximum TSP award. Headlights that are Marginal or lower knock a car out of TSP contention. The Legacy's optional curve-adaptive headlights were deemed Good, while those same headlights in the Outback were only Acceptable, resulting in the different awards for the two models. For both cars, the base headlights also were Acceptable, meaning either model with the standard headlights would be a TSP (except that the IIHS grants a single model only its higher-level award).

Subaru WRX STI Type RA-R has more power, less weight

Subaru is releasing yet another special high performance WRX STI that's only for its home, Japan. This time it's a variant of the WRX STI Type RA called the Type RA-R. Though it looks very similar to the version we get in the U.S., it has some key differences. Instead of the 310-horsepower 2.5-liter four-cylinder in ours, the RA-R has a 324-horsepower turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder. It also produces 318 pound-feet of torque, a fair bit more than the 290 of ours. The Type RA-R also boasts additional weight savings. The company says it's about 66 pounds lighter than the WRX STI S208, another special STI similar to our Type RA. That model was already lightened thanks to a carbon fiber roof among other additions. Interestingly, the Type RA-R doesn't appear to have the Bilstein suspension of the S208 or the U.S. Type RA. It does still have Brembo brakes front and rear, though, with six-piston calipers up front and two-piston calipers in the back. Visually the Type RA-R looks fairly similar to its other special edition siblings. It has the extra "Cherry Blossom" red accents in the grille and the rear diffuser. It does have the option to go without the giant rear wing, though, for people who want the performance without shouting about it. The wheels are also downsized from 19 inches on the S208 and U.S.-spec Type RA to 18 inches. Unsurprisingly, this is a very limited edition vehicle. Only 500 will be sold, just like the U.S. Type RA. That is 50 more than the S208, though. The price before taxes is, at current exchange rates, about $41,500. Interestingly, that's a lower price than the American model. Of course it doesn't really matter because, as we already said, this car is for Japan only. Related Video:

Subaru cuts annual profit outlook on strength of yen, typhoon impact

TOKYO — Subaru lowered its annual profit forecast on expectations of a stronger yen and the impact on production from a typhoon last month, driving its shares down as much as 4.5%. Japan's smallest major automaker, one fifth of which is owned by top-ranked Toyota, cut its forecast for operating profit to 220 billion yen ($2 billion) for the year ending March 2020, from a previous forecast of 260 billion yen. Subaru revised its forecast for the yen to average 107 versus the dollar over the period, from 110 previously. A stronger currency eats into profits because cars exported from Japan become more expensive and the value of earnings made overseas decreases. The United States is Subaru's biggest market, accounting for about 60% of overall sales. Typhoon Hagibis forced Subaru to halt production at its factories in Gumna, north of Tokyo, for more than a week in October due to supply chain disruptions. The stoppage, which lasted until Oct. 25, resulted in lost production of 11,000 vehicles, Chief Executive Officer Tomomi Nakamura told a briefing in Tokyo on Wednesday. Hagibis was the worst typhoon to hit Japan in decades, leaving at least 80 people dead, according to national broadcaster NHK. "We have restarted production, but we couldn't return to full capacity immediately," Nakamura said. "Some of our suppliers' factories were completely submerged." Subaru also said vehicle sales rose nearly 20% in the first half of the fiscal year compared with a year earlier, driven almost entirely by an improvement in the United States amid strong demand for the Forester SUV crossover. Subaru shares were down 1% at 3,102 yen by 0440 GMT, after touching a low of 2,995.5 yen earlier.